Russia Today has a video from the airport taken shortly after the blast. Be warned: the video is a bit gruesome, as it shows a number of injured people lying on the ground. No blood, though.
And here's the N & P that I was preparing before the blast:
Turkey & SE Europe
The Wall Street Journal has a piece on Turkey's diplomacy and Turkish FM Ahmet Davutoglu.
Turkey's involvement in attempts to resolve two of the Middle East's
toughest diplomatic disputes this week has underscored its emergence as a
key player in the region, after decades spent on the sidelines.
It's not a bad piece, and the skepticism displayed at the end of the article is actually based upon something real, unlike the "neo-Ottoman" drivel that has shown up in a lot of other discussions about Davutoglu and Turkey's recent approach to its neighbors. See my post from last week for some elaboration of this.
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The children who are being tried under the Anti-Terror Law (TMY)
because they attended demonstrations have been pushed aside from the
agenda after certain legal amendments and after the campaigns of rights
advocators have finished. However, lawyer Seda Akço,
working in the field of children rights for many years, thinks that the
problem is still going on and that it will even grow further if the
justice system for children will not be reformed.
The story reminded me of something I read in the Detroit Free Press earlier this week about Nathaniel Abraham, who years ago was convicted as an adult—at age eleven—for the killing of another teenager.
So before we start calling Turkey "the country of no" justice for children, it's important to bear in mind that cruelty and injustice are not specific to any country or culture, but rather are part of the human condition.
Turkey isn't the country of no, it's a country of no. Sometimes I think people who focus upon a single country that isn't their own can lose that perspective one in a while.
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Here's an interesting piece on the upcoming census to take place in Serbia. I find the author's tone striking. Time and again the census is presented as something potentially destabilizing and imposed upon Serbia ("demanded by Brussels") from outside.
The population census to be undertaken this year will weigh heavily
politically in the Balkan countries. Updating the demographic, economic
and social data will undoubtedly affect relations among the states, risk
opening old wounds and stir memories of unfulfilled promises.
The piece also reflects continued Serbian resentment, I think, over the manner in which Kosovo's independence was orchestrated in 2008. Most Americans have already forgotten about this, and probably couldn't locate Kosovo on a map if their life depended on it, but the Bush administration's recognition of Kosovo as an independent state is something that people in a number of other states—Russia and Serbia above all—will not forget for some time.
In some parts of the world, Kosovo's independence continues to rub a lot of people the wrong way
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Late in the week Afghan president Hamid Karzai visited Moscow to meet with Russian President Dmitrii Medvedev.
Trade with Russia reached $500 million in 2010, according to Karzai,
and Moscow's technical know-how in the energy sector can help the
country. The agreement said that Russian specialists will help in
upgrading the Noglu hydropower plant and in building small power plants
in other regions.
Russia is also in talks to help rebuild the strategically important
Salang Tunnel, a north-south route through the Hindu Kush mountains; a
customs terminal; and a university in Kabul.
Russia has been playing an increasingly active role in Afghanistan lately, a development which seems likely to continue in the foreseeable future.
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